SHANE LOWRY TURNED up the pressure at the top of the leaderboard with an excellent 68 on day two of The Players Championship.
On a weather-delayed evening at TPC Sawgrass, Lowry finished with two clutch pars to take the 36-hole lead on 11-under par.
It puts him firmly in contention for what would be the biggest win of his career, a top prize of €1.7 million ($1.9m), and victory at golf’s unofficial “fifth Major.”
But Lowry will still have to reel in world number one Jason Day who continued his sensational form to lead the field by three shots through 14 holes of his disrupted second round.
Play will resume on Saturday at 2.15pm Irish time.
“I wasn’t too confident at the start of the week but golf is an amazing game,” Lowry told Sky Sports afterwards.
I just went out yesterday, tried to pick my targets and shot a good score, and did the same again today.
After a disappointing start which saw Lowry go one-over par through his first eight holes, his round sparked to life with this magnificent 120-yard eagle at the par-four 18th.
From that point he hardly put a foot wrong, making a 19-foot birdie at the second and then following it up with another birdie at the third.
Another monster birdie putt at the fifth moved him to -11 but he still had plenty of work to do to defend that score, and held a long par putt at the 17th to maintain his momentum.
“I got off to a bit of a shaky start with bogeys, I didn’t feel that comfortable, and then we got called in,” Lowry said.
To get back out and make a couple of birdies was very important.
Jonas Blixt, Alex Cejka and Cameron Tringale are all four shots behind Day on -10 while Rory McIlroy, who threatened to break the course record on Friday before shooting 64, is on -8.
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